Tag Archives: Future

A few days ago I was feeling nostalgic about childhood. Well, I was really just missing the days when I didn’t have a job.

The other day when I was at work, I realized that I was glancing at the clock every other minute. I didn’t necessarily mean to do so, but wanting to be outside those doors kept me waiting for the time I’d be off. I wondered how many people felt like this on a daily basis.

Wouldn’t it be great to love so much what you’re doing, to the point that you often forget to look at how long it’ll be until get you off? I know a lot of people often talk about this. “Better to be a taxi driver if that’s what you love to do, than be a CEO and hate it.” But of course I’ve never heard a CEO complain about their jobs.

In any case, I’ve been reading one of my future professor’s work. Her specialty is witness testimony in a courtroom. She’s just brilliant. Reading her work made me regret the fact that I didn’t study science, but it also made me look forward to what’s ahead for me. If I’m lucky, this means countless of hours spent doing something I’m enjoy, and getting paid for it!

Like this:

I never knew of TAs (Teaching Assistants) until I came to UCLA. You know, graduate students who hold their own discussions in addition to the lecture, and most likely the person who will grade you throughout the course. It made sense. There’s no way a professor could handle a 300 student lecture on his own. And with the lack of funding, there’s no better way to offer your graduate students financial assistance than by making up a job for them, right? But what happens when this job comes at the detriment of other’s education?

I must say than in less than two years, I’ve been thankful to have met truly committed TAs who have been there to help their discussions as much as possible. But as in real life, there’s no good without the bad. I have come across two or three individuals who are so bitter about not getting an actual fellowship, that they take it on the students.

Student: “Hi, I noticed that you gave me an A- but didn’t quite comment as to why. Could you help me understand what I could do better for the next time?”
TA: “Your paper was great.”
Student: “I don’t follow.”
TA: You chose to go with X’s argument and I don’t personally agree with it. That’s why you didn’t get an A.”

Thankfully this exchange didn’t happen to me, but I know this TA in question. After all, I had to correct his flawed theories from time to time. This is the same TA who wouldn’t let me see my final to see what I did wrong in it.

I understand TAs though. Since we still haven’t heard about fellowships for my wife, she might end up becoming one of this miserable individuals. But I keep reminding her that she would have been an undergraduate once by the time she’s grading papers. I mean, both my wife and I understand how competitive it is to get into graduate and professional schools. Why ruin someone’s chances because of a personal bias?

I personally gave this TA a very sincere and detailed evaluation, including how he was inadequately prepared to aid us with the material he was supposed to be in charged of. Yet, he doesn’t seem to be listening. My classmate will be taking this matter to the supervising professor next week and I sure hope he does something about it.

Like this:

All my applications are officially in. I added two more schools last minute, trying to improve my chances.

The road ahead will be long. I don’t have another chance to repeat my test, and unless I really don’t get into any school, I don’t really want to. In fact, I really wish I don’t have to go through this process again until I’m looking for jobs as an attorney.

I applied to all sorts of schools. Some I’d really love to go to. Including my beloved DLS. But most of those that fall in this category ask for a way better score than I have.

Which brings me to the fact that I may have spoiled our chances to make sure we go to schools in the same area next year. Sucky, isn’t it? I’m also not hoping for scholarships anymore. I will simply wait and hope for the best in the next two months.

On the bright side (I didn’t think there was any either), I finally KNOW what I want to do with my life. I have something to look forward to. And the best part is that I’m super excited about it all, and the Mrs. supports me on it 100%. Now I want to reserve this information for another entry, but if you wanted a hint, I’m gonna be applying for public service scholarships in the next few days.

Some of you already know that I’m in the process of applying to law schools. Unfortunately, since this is such a complex and time-consuming process, this particular theme has dominated this blog for quite a while.

On December 3rd, I took the LSAT- which is a test that all law school hopefuls must take in order to complete their application for admission. This silly standardized test has a lot of power in deciding where you’ll be accepted to, and along those lines, what jobs you will get and what kind of life you will have. Because of this, we, aspiring lawyers, all sweat the LSAT like no other thing in the world (except for the BAR, of course. But that’s another story).

Going into taking the test, I knew the scores release date would be January 6th, 2012. At this point you may be thinking that it’s just around the corner (or that this is perhaps the most boring thing I’ve written about). But I found out yesterday, that the scores are usually released a few days before the actual release date. In fact, this is almost always the trend.

So here I am thinking that tomorrow could be the day. Although it will be about two months or so before I actually hear back from schools I’ve applied to (which now we’re at 10 submitted apps out of 17), and that the LSAT is in no way a guarantee that you will get accepted anywhere, getting that score will tell me, for the most part, what the future holds for me and my family. Pretty scary, isn’t it?

So what will happen? Will I be celebrating this New Year’s Eve, or crying my eyes out?

I have been reading “Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin since I’ve had enough time to read something that isn’t a textbook. This book is a biographical account of Abraham Lincoln and his race to power, along with the lives of his competitors William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, and Edward Bates; all of who would go on to be his most important allies.

I have never been lucky enough to read a full biography of a personality as important in history as Abe Lincoln, let along one that involves the engaging writing of Goodwin. As I’ve been reading the accounts of the lives of Lincoln, Seward, Chase, and Bates, I’ve been reminded of that strange notion of communicating through letters.

I grew up through the growth of computers and Internet. I still remember the day my brother and I went to the first Internet cafe in town after school and stayed there for hours. We didn’t even let our parents know where we were and we had to hear it once we got home. It blew my mind, to communicate with someone across the world in a matter of minutes.

I never wrote a letter, or at least I don’t ever remember doing so. I wrote emails, but I took those for granted (and still do). I knew they would get to the other person in minutes, so I never put that much thought into my emails. When I read bits of pieces of the letters that people like Lincoln wrote back in the day, I feel ashamed for letting go of letters. We no longer put time into saying how or what we feel.

Even over blogs… we write and people in 50 years won’t know exactly how we see things, how we feel- so why don’t we change that?

People from 2060:

I am currently watching a show called “Damages,” starring Glenn Close. We are watching this show through Netflix, an Internet company that allows for instant streaming through my PlayStation 3- can you believe that? We can have TV shows 24/7 if we really wanted to (well, some do watch TV 24/7 for some reason)! My wife and best friend are watching with me. I hope by then our marriage would have more legal rights and social acceptance. We are in our studio in Westwood, California- across the street from the University of California, Los Angeles where we are pursuing our Bachelors’ degrees. I’m not sure if you’d still go to a physical classroom in your time, but I love it. The weather is sunny but not too warm. Perfect beach day if you didn’t just have a whole week of studying to prepare for finals. We had leftover pizza for lunch, which is somewhat an improvement from the usual ramen noodle cup (instant noodles) that most college students eat nowadays.

I am thrilled to be watching this show because I want to be a lawyer and Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) is a lawyer in this show. Hard to tell if she’s the good or bad guy so far… but judging from her character in “101 Dalmatians” (if you haven’t seen it, YOU MUST!), she’s someone you shouldn’t trust. I am making my wife and my best friend watch it with me- they say they like it, but people usually lie (see my previous post) to avoid hurting other people’s feelings. So it’s hard to tell whether they like it or not. I still love them regardless. And I would be crazy not to since they have yet to complain about the fact that I’ve been typing on laptop for about two episodes now (roughly 2 hours). Maybe it is an advantage that we don’t use ink anymore because I may have run out of it by now.